


City Girl 05: Guardian Angels

by NervousOtaku



Series: Earth Pi Chronicles [6]
Category: Marvel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-06-06
Packaged: 2020-04-11 15:13:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19112266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NervousOtaku/pseuds/NervousOtaku
Summary: Curt had thought he'd be the only one looking out for Felicity. Johnny Storm changes that pretty quickly.





	City Girl 05: Guardian Angels

“Uh, hey, excuse me?”

Curt sighed a little, looking up. “Can I help you with something?” he asked the young man fidgeting in the doorway of the lab.

“I'm, uh, looking for Dr. Connors...”

“Yeah, that's me...” he sighed again, closing his notes.

“Great. Cool. Uh... Felicity told me I could talk to you about her... work?” the guy said awkwardly.

That had him straightening up. “Felicity? Stark?”

“Yeah, that's her... she, uh... I babysat her. And... oh, god, how do I say any of this...”

Curt shrugged his lab-coat off and moved towards the guy. “I'm Curt. Why don't we go downstairs, it's less clinical there. Don't worry about people hearing us, no one works this late but me. Well... me and the janitor. But he won't bother us.”

“Right. Cool. I'm Johnny. Johnny Storm.” the man nodded, looking anxious.

The two of them were silent as they moved downstairs, into the lounge. Curt ended up getting them both styrofoam cups of coffee from the machine, sitting across from him at the table in the corner.

The building was full of various labs. Curt was a touch on the prideful side that he had one of the bigger ones. He didn't have as many interns or assistants as some of the other lab-heads, but there was a very good reason for that. One with venomous fangs and a long scaly tail. Usually he just came into the lounge for a cup of coffee, maybe a newspaper is someone left one lying around, and went back to his lab. It was admittedly kinda weird to actually sit down here.

“So... you wanted to talk about Felicity?” he asked.

“Yeah... she... well, I went to see her the other day. Congratulate her on getting her own apartment, on her robotics work... and I may have found out about some stuff I'd rather not have.” Johnny replied, looking anxious. Walking on eggshells. “She... she said you were in on the job, and that if I was concerned—”

“About her intentions to associate with some of the worst scum humanity has produced and rise up their ranks?” Curt asked with a dry smile.

“Yeah,” Johnny nodded, grabbing his coffee and draining it all in one go, “That. She has one of the psychos staying at her apartment. She... she's going to Maine, alone, with him. They're there now.”

That made him frown. “Daken?”

“Yeah. That guy. They're... going to see his uncle or some shit like that.” the younger man nodded, fidgeting with his cup.

“I remember her saying that she planned to do that, but I didn't think she meant so soon... she only just met with Fisk...” Curt murmured, running a hand through his hair.

“Fisk? You mean the Kingpin?!” Johnny demanded, eyes wide. The smell of burning started to waft through the air, and Johnny promptly dropped the cup, shaking his hands.

“I take it she didn't tell you everything, then.” he sighed, eyeing the singe-marks on Johnny's cup curiously. A mutant?

“Clearly not!” the young man all but wailed in distress, getting up and pacing around the lounge. Curt grimaced, letting him walk it out. “The Kingpin?! I mean, it's bad enough that she's got that... that freak Daken hanging around! She's sixteen! I babysat her until about five years ago! And I know she's a Stark, but she's...!”

“More than meets the eye.” Curt supplied, sipping at his coffee. Terrible instant stuff, same as always. One of these days he was going to bring in good stuff.

Johnny came back to the table, sitting with his head in his hands. “... I told her that I'd let her do this stuff as long as she checked in with me twice a week... but now I'm seriously starting to rethink things...”

“If it's any consolation,” Curt offered, “I told her she has to call me once a week and update me on what she's gotten up to.”

The young man sighed, then looked up at him. “What about you?” he asked Curt glumly. “Where do you fit in? Why're you in on her schemes?”

Curt gave a crooked smile as he answered, “When upset I turn into a big green monster.”

“I've met Bruce Banner, man,” Johnny snorted, rolling his eyes, “You ain't the Hulk.”

“No,” Curt agreed, “I'm significantly scalier.”

That made Johnny's brow crease. The young man mouthed the words, but still looked lost.

“Ever heard of the Lizard?” Curt offered.

“Yeah, helped Spider-Man take him down a couple times.”

Huh. More than just a mutant, then. Logically he had to be, if he'd babysat Felicity.

“I don't remember, but then again, I'm not in control when the Lizard is.”

Johnny stared for a moment, eyes wide, then spread his palms on the table between them. “I know Spidey talked about a cure each time we fought, but... you're kidding, right?”

He shook his head, offering up his left arm. “Was looking to undo this.”

“Undo? What's wrong with your arm?” Johnny frowned.

“Nothing, now that I've regrown it,” Curt answered, “Had to get amputated after it got mangled during my term of service. I started looking into the possibility of regrowing it, based on the abilities reptiles display. I came up with a serum that, when tested on rabbits, worked perfectly. The next subject was me. And it seemed to work.”

“... But then something happened, and you found out not everything was peachy.” Johnny supplied, looking a little grim.

“If I get angry, or scared, or just too stressed out, I lose it and turn into a cold-blooded killer. Felicity tracked me down as protection for her first encounter with Daken. Acted like I was supposed to walk away afterwards, forget all about it, but I'm a father. How could I look at my own kid if I let someone not that much older than him if I didn't at least make sure she was okay at the end of the week?” Curt sighed, finishing his tepid coffee. In the silence that followed, he asked, “Did she at least tell you her long-term plans?”

That got a nod, Johnny muttering about how little sense it made.

“Actually,” Curt said, drawing the other man's attention, “It is, in a way, similar to what police will occasionally do. Go undercover into different gangs or the like, keep an eye on activities and proceedings. The only real difference is that Felicity is up-front with what she wants, what she's doing, and who she is. And I get the feeling that sort of honesty is part of what will help her. For how long, I don't know. But at least some of the people she connects to are going to be amused, or intrigued, or want to see how far she'll actually get.”

“And the rest?” Johnny frowned, drumming his fingers on the table.

“She's a businesswoman. That's another part of what's helping her. Even with me— Felicity's all but paying for my research. If there are materials I need but can't get, she's promised to get them. Already she's started making deposits and inquiries. I had to draw the line when she offered to replace all the equipment in my lab with Stark-level stuff. If anyone decides to go against her, she can cut agreements, rescind favors. And beyond that, she's a pretty public figure. She's Iron Man's daughter, has connections to the Avengers, if she gets hurt or goes missing you need to be confident you have the muscle to deal with the upset family.” Curt explained, twisting to throw his cup away. He missed the trash can, cup bouncing off the rim and clattering to the floor. He couldn't help the disappointed sigh that escaped him, making Johnny chuckle as he glared at the offending piece of trash.

“What really scares me,” the young man said as Curt stood to pick up his cup, “Is the idea that she'll succeed. Become the number one big bad of the world.”

He nodded in agreement as the styrofoam clunked to the bottom of the trash, muffled by plastic crinkling. “It is a scary thought. But at the same time... I get the feeling that if anyone could manage it, she could.”

“Doesn't make it any better. I snuck this kid donuts while she was grounded for making some rich snob's email inbox public on the web.” Johnny replied, tossing his cup. The burnt styrofoam landed perfectly in the trash can.

“I feel like I remember that.” Curt said thoughtfully. “He was an aspiring politician, wasn't he?”

“Aiming for Senate or House or something. Whatever it was, though, he'd been talking shit about Tony, saying stuff like he was cheating on his wife, he was going back to weapons dealing, stuff like that. Not even a week later, all his email is plastered everywhere. Stuff from his dealer, his mistress, and things where he was talking smack about certain minorities. People initially blamed Tony himself, but then, during a press conference addressing the issue, Pepper comes on stage with Felicity in tow, kicks her husband off the podium, and puts the kid up for a public apology about her misbehaving.”

Halfway through the story, Johnny had started to smile. Curt couldn't help but smile back, saying, “And you snuck her donuts?”

“She wasn't allowed in any lab or workshop, all her personal computers and her phone were confiscated, and the most complex things she was allowed were a PSP and a box of Legos. She also wasn't allowed any special treats,” Johnny nodded, smiling wider, “And then both Tony and Pepper had to go out of town. Official Stark Industries business. As Felicity was grounded, that would have counted as a special treat, so she had to stay home. No one else was available to babysit, so I got called up. I waited until I was sure everyone was gone, then called a place that delivered and got a whole bunch of donuts. We spent the entire day eating junk food and making... well, immature stuff out of Legos.”

The story had Curt chuckling and shaking his head as he sat back down. “Hard to picture her like that. She's... very good at what she does.” he said.

Johnny nodded, lacing his fingers together and saying, “She's like a little sister to me. I... don't think I could sleep at night if something happened to her while I knew all this was going on.”

“Well then,” Curt sighed, “I guess it's up to us to make sure nothing does happen then, isn't it?”

**Author's Note:**

> Earth Pi and Felicity Edward Stark originated as a world-building and character-building exercise that have both grown and evolved since then. I have decided to begin nudging the resulting fanworks onto AO3.


End file.
